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Cockermouth Community Hospital officially opened

Cockermouth's new £11 million community hospital has been given the seal of approval by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, national medical director of NHS England.

Sir Bruce officially opened the hospital on Isel Road today.

The facility has been open to the public since January and replaced the 100-year-old cottage hospital next door.

The new hospital has self check-in areas, a reception area, pharmacy and colour-coded waiting areas for the Castlegate and Derwent House surgeries, which between them serve 16,000 people.

The surgeries are designed around a nursing hub. There is an 11-bed in-patient ward, with en-suite facilities, a minor injuries unit, X-ray facilities and two education rooms.

Community services, including district nurses, midwives and health visitors, are also based there.

Sir Bruce was given a tour of the building and then unveiled a plaque to mark the official opening.

He said: “I am very impressed with the building. I am also impressed that after the floods your GPs responded in quite an extraordinary way to see something built that was better than before.

“What you see here is a lot of services that would normally be in different places, under one roof. The whole design of the building is to make it easier for the patients.”

Dr John Howarth, a director for Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and a former Cockermouth GP, said: “I am absolutely delighted to have Sir Bruce here to open the new hospital. I know he was impressed with the staff here and the building.”

Phil Campbell, chairman of Cockermouth and District Civic Trust, presented the hospital with a certificate of commendation for the excellent design of the building.

There was also a health fair open to the public so they could find out about the services available in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Sir Bruce also commentated on the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust closing the kitchens at Workington and Cockermouth hospitals and having meals brought in to be heated up.

The trust is planning to do the same for Maryport and Keswick hospitals.

Sir Bruce said: “I don’t know the details, but before people get too annoyed about it they ought to bear in mind that the best rated restaurants have their food prepared away from the restaurant and then it gets re-heated. This is increasingly common practice in every high-end place.”

Have your say

"Sir Bruce said: âI donât know the details, but before people get too annoyed about it they ought to bear in mind that the best rated restaurants have their food prepared away from the restaurant and then it gets re-heated. This is increasingly common practice in every high-end place.âWhat a load of bollocks!!

Posted by Colin Key on
1 October 2014 at 20:22

How out of touch senior managers (Sir Bruce Keogh)are with relation to hospital meals and those that are ready made for restaurants.The standards are higher and the budgets greater.